ABET – An Update Willis King, ABET Director Feb. 17, 2007

Two Parts A summary of the board meeting on Oct. 28, 2006 Pre and post meeting activities of IEEE VP of EAB and the IEEE ABET board directors.

ABET Board Meeting Review of strategic issues PAVE New financial model Budget authority of ABET executive committee Harmonization ECEI

Review of strategic issues President-elect Clark summarized the feedback from the board in its March meeting. Issues considered require immediate attention are : »Accreditation process requirements lead institutions to question the perceived value of accreditation »Globalization of the professions results in the increased need for Authentication of educational credentials Quality assurance for educational programs in other countries Portability of educational credentials »Emerging technologies, changing disciplines and the blurring of boundaries among technological disciplines challenge traditional approaches to educational delivery and quality assurance

PAVE A motion is passed to establish a PAVE Committee that will report to the Board, at the March 2007 meeting, on the following: (1)Composition of the decision-making body for PAVE action, establishment and documentation of decision-making procedures, rules, reporting relationships, and other pertinent parameters. (2)Financial impact on ABET, ABET member societies, and other affected constituencies (An attempt to ask for an analysis of visitors failure rate was overruled by the chair )

New Financial Model Responsibilities for Costs Members Assessments Institutional Fees

RESPONSIBILITIES FOR COSTS Indirect costs will be allocated to all ABET activities. The Institutions will support the direct and indirect costs of Accreditation. The ABET Members will support the direct and indirect costs of Governance. Professional Services such as workshops, the ABET annual meeting, publications, etc. should set fees so as to recover, at least, direct and indirect costs. When competitive pricing allows, a margin should be added to the fees that would then help fund other activities. Professional Services such as presentations, brochures, press releases and the like, for which there is no direct offsetting revenue, shall be supported by the Members. The direct costs of ECEI shall be funded by fees paid by the applicants for credentials evaluation. The Members shall support the indirect costs.

ASSESSMENTS: A Member's annual assessment is calculated based on a combination of the Member's number of Board seats and the number of programs for which the Member has curricular responsibility. The Finance Committee should consider methods for relieving disproportionate costs for large and small societies. Members will pay a fee for each Board member seat. Associate Members will pay a fee equal to 25% of the Member fee. Members will be assessed on the basis of the number of programs for which they have curricular responsibility. A tiered schedule will be established with a cap for those Members with curricular responsibility for over 300 programs. Members with seats on a commission for which they have no curricular responsibility will pay a surcharge.

INSTITUTIONAL FEES Institutions will pay both an evaluation fee (for visits and reports) as well as an annual maintenance fee. The annual maintenance fee is intended to cover the direct and indirect costs of accreditation operations (such as commission meetings, personnel expenses and overhead) exclusive of the direct and indirect costs associated with the evaluation visits. Total revenue from annual maintenance fees will increase, but will facilitate better budgeting by the institutions. The annual maintenance fee will include a nominal fixed amount based on the number of programs at the institution, as well as an amount based on the number of graduates from each of the programs in the prior year. The nominal fixed amount insures that all programs, including those small programs that may have no, or very few, graduates in a given year, contribute to the costs of accreditation activities.

INSTITUTIONAL FEES Institutions will pay an evaluation fee for visits that is based on the number of programs being evaluated, not the number of visitors. The evaluation fee will be calculated to include the direct and indirect costs of the visits and to contribute to the costs of accreditation operations. The evaluation fee for interim reports will be 1/2 of the evaluation fee for a visit to a program. Each program requiring an interim report will be charged.

New financial model The board accepts in principle a new financial model proposal by an ad hoc committee of ten (Mike Lockerd, a former IEEE director is a member) two versions of the 2007/2008 ABET budget will be prepared and submitted for Board review by 15 January 2007: Version 1: A budget using the current financial model Version 2: A budget using the new proposed financial model

Budget authority of ABET executive committee The ABET Board amended the proposal and limited the authority of the Executive Committee with respect to approval of budgets for special projects, the limit is $25,000 for each project per year.

Harmonization Further work is needed, the issue will be brought back next March.

ECEI ABET CREDENTIALS EVALUATION SERVICE (ECEI) discontinued. NCEES will take over the service.

Pre Oct meeting activities IEEE VP of EAB and the IEEE ABET board directors communicated with ABET leadership on the subject of improving the operation and governance of ABET. Last September, we proposed in the form of a motion asking the administration: 1.To brief the Board on the financial status of ABET on a bimonthly basis 2.To conduct two teleconferences of the Board at midpoint between board meetings 3.To post draft meeting minutes 15 days after the meeting 4.To report major project progress two annually in between board meeting 5.To notify board members on invitations to all major ABET meetings, symposia and other events 6.To ask ABET legal counsel to brief the board members on their fiduciary duty and legal obligations.

Pre Oct meeting activities ABET President responded by: »Promising to carry out items 3 and 6 »Referring to committees to study the practicality and financial impact of items 1,2,4 and 5.

Post Oct meeting activities In January 2007, we wrote to the president of ABET on »The apparent failure to accomplish item 3 as promised »The concerns on the operation and future status of PAVE »The legal limitation of IEEE on financing international accreditation

Post Oct meeting activities A meeting of the IEEE VP of EAB and ABET directors with the leadership of ABET is scheduled on Feb 26, 2007 to resolve some of the issues.